


Albus Severus Potter

by ellalightwood



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Severus Snape Bashing, also if the characters seem ooc that was my intention, this fic is kinda a joke pls dont take too seriously
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-16
Updated: 2019-12-16
Packaged: 2021-02-24 16:48:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21821191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ellalightwood/pseuds/ellalightwood
Summary: The day after Albus Severus Potter's birth, Harry and Ginny gather some of their closest friends and family to officially announce the name of their new baby. The reaction of their guests is...perhaps not as enthusiastic as one might hope. Neville, especially, takes offence at the idea of a baby being named after Severus Snape, and an argument ensues.
Relationships: Angelina Johnson/George Weasley, Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley
Comments: 3
Kudos: 26





	Albus Severus Potter

“His name’s Albus Severus,” Harry said.

Ron blinked, exchanging a quick, baffled glance with Hermione. “Beg pardon?”

“It was his idea, not mine,” Ginny added quickly, avoiding the accusatory glare her brother sent her way. 

“Did I hear that correctly? Albus _Severus_ Potter?” Hermione said. The room had become very quiet; the murmur of “awws” and whispered congratulations and bustle of people pushing and nudging each other aside in their eagerness to see the baby now faded away as they stood around the room in bemused silence. Harry, who had perhaps not been anticipating such a disappointing reaction, went a little pink-cheeked.

“It’s a great name!” he said defensively. “He’s named after two of the bravest men I have ever known, Albus Dumbledore and Severus Sna—”

“Excuse me?” Neville Longbottom stepped out of the crowd assembled in the Potters’ living room. He looked from Harry, to Ginny, to the baby in Ginny’s arms, and then back to Harry again. “Bravest man you’ve ever known, did you say? Snape? The _bravest man_?”

“Yeah! He died to save the wizarding world! He was a hero!” Harry said, now looking definitely annoyed.

Neville laughed, a harsh laugh amplified by the Firewhiskey they’d all chugged down earlier. “That _man_ ,” he said coldly, “was no _hero_. What kind of hero torments a _child_ to such an extent that he becomes that child’s worst fear? What kind of hero bullies a girl for having the right answers to his questions, or for the size of her teeth? What kind of hero threatens to poison a child’s beloved pet?” He glared at Harry, his arms folded. “I don’t mind you naming the kid after Dumbledore, I’ve got nothing against _him_ – but I can’t believe, out of all the people we’ve lost, you’ve lost, you decided to honour _Snape.”_ He spat Snape’s name out as if it were a curse.

There were murmurs of agreement. Some of the guests looked embarrassed or apologetic, others just as indignant as Neville. Some – Lee Jordan, the Patil twins, Angelina Johnson, Seamus and Dean – looked like they were trying not to laugh, not at Neville, but at the ludicrousness of the name Albus Severus Potter.

“Harry,” George spoke from the back of the room, sitting on the edge of the drinks table with his and Angelina’s son Freddie on his lap. “No offense, mate, but couldn’t you have gone for a nice, normal name, like…like, I don’t know… _John_? Also, Ginny, I can’t believe you _let_ him do that. Poor kid’s gonna be bullied all his life, with a name like that.”

“I tried to change his mind, but he wouldn’t listen!” Ginny told him.

“Ginny!” Harry looked betrayed as he stared at his beloved wife. “You told me you loved that name!”

“Oh, Harry,” Ginny sighed, patting him consolingly on the shoulder. “I did try to tell you what I really thought about it, but then you started crying about how heroic Snape was and how much he loved your mum, and I felt bad so I didn’t want to say anything.”

Neville wasn’t finished ranting. “What about Remus? Hagrid? Moody? Mr Weasley? I mean, come on, you can’t honestly say that _Snape_ was the bravest man you ever knew when you had so many other, better people looking out for you!”

“He almost killed George,” Ron pointed out. “If Lupin hadn’t got him home in time or hadn’t managed to keep him on the broom, he could’ve fallen off or bled out or something!”

“That was an _accident!_ ” Harry snapped. “He wasn’t aiming for George!”

Hermione interrupted. “From what I understand, Harry, Snape was unhealthily obsessed with your mother. I mean, he spent twenty-odd years holding a grudge against your dad, to the point where he took it out on _you_ , as though it was _your_ fault Lily didn’t love him back!”

Harry flushed red as the others began to voice their agreement, and in a thunderous voice that drowned out the babble of objections, he roared, “HE WAS IN LOVE WITH HER!”

You could have heard a pin drop, so deafening was the silence that followed. Hermione’s mouth opened and closed but offered no sound, her face white with shock. Dean choked on a Chocolate Frog and bent over, coughing, while Seamus thumped him on the back. Sitting nearby on Luna’s lap, two-year-old James’s mouth fell open, his raspberry-flavoured lollipop dropping to the floor. Neville recovered from his shock first, and looked, if possible, even more furious than before.

“I can’t _believe_ you’re defending him,” he said in disgust. “I don’t care how brave he was, I don’t care whose side he was on, he was a complete _dick_ to you, and me, and almost everybody in this room. He outed Professor Lupin as a werewolf, forcing him to quit, all because of some stupid grudge he had against your dad and his friends. He doesn’t deserve to be honoured, or remembered, or—”

“Well _fuck you_ , Longbottom,” Harry snarled, striding across the room so that his face was right up close to Neville’s. He reached for his wand, which was sticking out of his back pocket, and several people gasped.

“Harry!” Ginny hissed. Neville’s face was contorted with rage as he snatched up his own wand, and the two wizards stood almost nose-to-nose, wands pointed at each other’s chests. 

“Mate,” Ron said, sounding rather nervous and worried for his friend’s sanity. He stepped forwards, putting a hand on Harry’s elbow. “I think you’ve had a bit too much to drink, and you’re tired, you and Ginny have had a long day. C’mon, let’s get out of here, let’s go somewhere else – Hermione? Ginny?” He looked imploringly at his heavily pregnant wife and his sister, pulling at Harry’s arm in a desperate attempt to get him to budge. 

“Not until I poke this arsehole’s eyes out!” Harry yelled, resisting Ron’s grip with tremendous effort.

“I’ll knock your teeth out of your head first!” Neville bellowed, pulling against Hermione’s hand on his wrist. “I’ll give you another scar to go with the one on your forehead, how’s that?”

“Maybe I’ll _Crucio_ you so hard you end up in St Mungo’s with your loser parents!”

With a howl of outrage, Neville tore himself out of Hermione’s grasp, discarded his wand and punched Harry in the face, eliciting a sickening crunch. His knuckles came away stained with blood. Harry screamed, brandishing his wand with the arm that wasn’t being restrained by Ron, setting off sparks that singed Neville’s eyebrows and set his hair on fire. Now Neville was screaming too, diving for his wand and slashing it through the air, sending out plumes of black smoke that engulfed Harry and then spat him out, coughing and swearing and with a face now covered in blood and soot. Eyes streaming from the soot and the smoke, Harry swung his wand in a wild arc, and Neville was thrown backwards, hitting his head on the drinks table. He staggered to his feet and, with shaking hands, sliced an angry pattern in the air with his wand, making knives materialise out of nowhere and shoot straight for Harry’s face. 

Harry ducked, and everyone else was forced to duck too as the knives soared past his head and lodged themselves in the opposite wall – all except one, which nicked his ear. Harry stabbed his wand in Neville’s direction, and the rug was pulled out from under Neville’s feet, sending him crashing to the ground again. Before he could struggle to his feet, Harry stomped hard on Neville’s face and trampled on his hand. Neville screamed again as blood spurted from his nose, clutching the broken fingers of his left hand. He bolted upright, grabbing his wand from the floor with his undamaged hand, but before he could continue, Hermione’s voice shouted _“Accio wands!”_

Harry and Neville’s wands soared across the room and into Hermione’s hands, and the two men surveyed the carnage around them. Bits of broken glass littered the Firewhiskey-stained carpet. George, Angelina and Luna had left the room, carrying the children safely out of the way – Freddie and the unfortunate Albus Severus could be heard crying as the door shut firmly behind them. The other guests were backed up against the walls, watching with wide eyes and open mouths. If the silence had been deafening before, it was nothing compared to now. 

“ _Boys_ ,” Hermione said in her sternest voice. “That’s quite enough.” She turned to Harry. “ _Really_ , Harry, I expected more maturity from you. Is that the kind of behaviour you want to be teaching your sons, or your godson? You two are grown men, brawling like _children_ over a _baby’s name_ , for Merlin’s sake! And as for _you_ , Neville, you are a _Hogwarts professor_ – imagine if one of your students or colleagues saw you like this!” Harry and Neville hung their heads as she stared at them with a fierce look reminiscent of Minerva McGonagall. “Now, go and get yourselves cleaned up at once!”

Harry and Neville shuffled, shamefaced, out of the room, just as George, Luna and Angelina re-entered with the children. Angelina handed Albus Severus back to Ginny with a sympathetic smile. 

“But really, though,” Lee Jordan said, once Harry and Neville were out of earshot. _“Albus Severus?”_ Several of the guests laughed along with him, even Hermione, though she looked a little guilty as she did so. 

"We can always call him Al – you know, rather than Albus,” Ginny said, waving her wand to fix the broken Firewhiskey bottles and glasses. “And since Severus is his middle name, no one will ever have to call him _that_.”

“Unless he’s in really big trouble,” Ron grinned. He mimicked his mother’s voice: “ _Albus Severus Potter! What do you think you’re doing?”_ This earned him another round of laughter. 

Sitting on a chair next to George and Angelina, eight-year-old Teddy chimed in, “I think Uncle Neville’s right, Albus Severus is a weird name.” He grinned sheepishly at Ginny. “No offence, Aunt Ginny.”

“None taken,” Ginny replied, looking amused as the guests chuckled. 

“I suppose it’s not the worst name,” George said. “I’m sure there’ve been weirder names. I mean, imagine calling your kid _Mundungus_.”

The mood in the room lightened as everyone laughed and talk turned to other subjects, such as Hermione’s pregnancy, the upcoming Holyhead Harpies versus Puddlemere United match, and the ten-year anniversary celebration George and Ron were planning for Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes. When Harry and Neville returned, still eyeing each other resentfully but looking much cleaner and more respectable, they sat down at the table under Hermione’s watchful gaze, and miraculously managed to control their tempers for the rest of the afternoon. 


End file.
